Opening Hand, Closing Heart
by LaptopWriter22
Summary: "'Sometimes, you have to let go and close a chapter in your heart, even when it's not finished.' Ferb opened his hand. The rose fell off the building, following the torn pieces of paper." Ferbnessa dark chocolate (see my profile) one-shot set shortly after "My Sweet Ride."


**Opening Hand, Closing Heart**

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Phineas and Ferb.**_

He had seen her there, oh, yes he had. The good news was that he had been able to keep face in front of everyone, even his little brother, who had a vague idea of his love for her. He didn't even know if Phineas had noticed her with that good-looking older boy. He was sure Candace hadn't. But he'd seen her, moving through the crowd, her arm linked with another's. The young man kissed her on the cheek, and she'd smiled the way Ferb had once dreamed of making her smile. But his dreams were obviously futile now, fading like old dried roses through no fault of his own.

She'd called him "Monty." Ferb still wasn't exactly sure how he'd heard her through the crowd, but somehow, the name had made its way from her lips to his ears. A week after the Doo-wop Hop, bitter, self-depreciating thoughts were still passing through his mind. _Did you really think this gorgeous girl would ever notice the presence of a short, green-haired kid like you?_

Ferb hugged his knees a little closer to his chest. He was sitting close to the edge of a giant mechanical hummingbird, the boys' project for the day. Phineas, Isabella, and the rest were keeping quieter than usual. Ferb may not have talked much, but the sullen expression on his face and the rose wrapped in a piece of paper that he held told everyone that something was wrong.

"Is here okay?" Phineas asked, pulling the hummingbird to a stop slightly above a condominium facing a strange purple building. "This is the first building I've seen with a roof meant for walking on." Ferb nodded and stood up. Phineas stepped forward.

"Ferb, are you okay?" he inquired. "I mean, you haven't been yourself lately, and I don't know why." Phineas glanced apprehensively at the sky-high building. "You wouldn't do anything stupid, would you?"

Ferb frowned and shook his head, surprised that Phineas would even think of something like that. "Of course not," he assured his brother. "I just need to be alone and let go of something. You can pick me up when you're done with the ride."

"Okay," Phineas said. He climbed back into the front seat and steered the hummingbird away. Ferb watched it go, slowly unwrapping the rose from the notebook paper inscribed with his words. He walked fearlessly to the edge of the building and read the first few lines of the paper.

_Vanessa, I'm sorry for writing about you, because you don't belong to me. I tended to fantasize and thought you did for a while. Now, you've brought reality crashing down._ Ferb tore the first part of the paper off and ripped it into many tiny pieces. Then, he dropped them off the edge of the building. They floated down and a little to the right in the slight breeze. Ferb read the next part.

_You don't know me, and I'll never know you the way I wanted to. Even now, I'm struggling to think of you as a girl happy with a boyfriend. A boyfriend who looks like he'll be everything but heartbreak to you._ Ferb jerked the paper away from his face before a hot tear fell on it, ripped the middle part of the paper to shreds, and tossed it off the building.

_I wanted you to be with me so much that I fooled myself into thinking you already were._ The lines blurred before Ferb's vision. _I pressed the rose you never knew I got you in a book until yesterday, when I realized that for _us_ to be a chapter in my heart, there had to be two authors: You and me._ The handwriting seemed to disintegrate in Ferb's hands as he tore the paper, then let the pieces flutter off his fingers.

_Sometimes, you have to let go and close a chapter in your heart, even when it's not finished. Maybe it was never meant to be completed, but I think there's a reason for every sentence to be written. Every lost thing helps you grow, right?_

_ Goodbye, Vanessa._

Ferb slowly tore the last pieces of paper into bits and threw them into the wind. He held the rose that had been wrapped in the paper close for an instant, and then opened his hand, letting it drop over the edge also. It fell more quickly than the paper, following it to the busy street below. Ferb turned back from watching it descend, hearing a noise in the sky. He walked away from the edge and waited. The hummingbird was coming back.

A minute later, rather vexed voices sounded from a certain car as Monty pulled up to the parking lot of the DEI with his secret girlfriend. "My parents may be divorced, but at least _my_ dad didn't look at other women while he was committed," Vanessa was pointing out. Monty rolled his eyes.

"Hey, I-" he began, but stopped as he glanced up at Doofenshmirtz' building. "Vanessa, is your dad home?" he asked.

"Not now," Vanessa replied. "He's at some L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N conference today."

"Okay. I just wanted to be sure he wouldn't hear us or anything," Monty said. "We could sit out here for a little bit," he suggested. "I've got nothing to do."

Vanessa averted her eyes. "I can't," she made excuse. "I've got-" A soft _thump_ on the front of Monty's car interrupted her. An old, dried rose had fallen onto the windshield.

Vanessa got out and picked up the rose. A piece of paper came with it. The only word written on it was, _Vanessa._ The puzzled girl opened the passenger door again and held the rose toward Monty.

"Monty, did you plan this, or something?" Monty looked at the rose and shook his head.

"No," he answered. "That was nicely timed, though."

"Yes, yes it was," Vanessa said thoughtfully.

"Well, are you sure you can't-" Vanessa hastily shut the passenger door before Monty could finish and gave a backward wave to her boyfriend as she hurried for the door of Doofenshmirtz' building. She didn't like to admit that Monty could be annoying, but some of the things he said about her dad lately were bothering her. She pressed the elevator button for the top floor and waited for it to come down.

It was not until she was on the elevator and halfway up to her dad's apartment that she realized the rose and the fragment of paper were still in her hand.


End file.
